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The Writing Program is delighted to announce the winners of this year’s Sharon Walsh Essay Contest. I’d also like to personally thank the Sharon Walsh committee members, Julie Fiorelli, Michael Slager, Nur Karatas, and Shelby Sleevi, for their work reading and assessing all of the contest entries.

 

This student essay contest was established in honor of Dr. Sharon Walsh, a much valued and long-time instructor in the Writing Program and English Department here at Loyola. Dr. Walsh published and distributed a collection of student essays each semester to highlight effective and engaging student writing.  Her friends, colleagues, and family generously created this essay award to continue her legacy and in memory of her intellectual contributions and dedication to her students. 

 

This year’s awards honor the best work produced by UCWR 110 students and nominated by their instructors during the Fall 2023-Spring 2024 semesters; we also included work produced at the end of the Spring 2023 semester that couldn’t be included in last year’s group.

 

And now, without further ado, our winners:

Our honorable mention goes to Maddie O’Brien, whose Researched Argument, Toxic Asian Beauty Standards stood out as well-researched and capacious in its critical investigation of the cultural, and often racist, values that underlie beauty trends.

Third prize (with an award of $50) goes to Faris Dispensa’s analysis essay, “Recruiting Crisis: The Navy’s Silver Bullet.” Faris’ essay reads as a sophisticated and in-depth analysis of a Navy Recruitment video, using this analysis to raise important questions about the rhetoric of military recruitment.  

Second prize (with an award of $75) goes to Lawson Sharrer's Essay, To what extent is it ethical for a heterosexual actor to play a queer character Lawson’s Researched Argument investigates the ethics of cis actors portraying queer characters in film and television with clarity and nuance, ultimately suggesting that more robust practices of consultation could improve representation without limiting the roles actors can portray.    

Finally, our first prize, which comes with an award of $100, goes to Zach Kofira’s essay, “Effects of Propaganda on Transgender Lives.” Judges described Zach’s Researched Argument as a “strong, well-organized essay with compelling support and explanation.” Zach considers the ways in which media propaganda manufactures cultural values that have material effects on the lives of transgender people.

Let’s give a round of applause for all of this year’s student winners.